Today is the era of Information, or more precisely “Information Technology”. From a small private school fees management system to a multi-national organization’s complex Information management systems, everything is dependent on the smooth running of IT systems.

Whether you own a broker-dealer business or you are an individual broker, you can easily become the target of cyber attacks.

Protecting yourself against such attacks is not an easy task, as they are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and more frequent.

Any business owner who handles sensitive data, especially the kind that is related to their clients, knows how important it is to ensure that no security threats can cause a data leak, since that would pretty much mean the end of their business.

This is why more and more businesses are implementing two-factor authentication.

Cloud storage is the storage of your information on a distant hard drive which you access via the internet. By using cloud storage, people are able to store large amounts of data without personally owning and operating the hardware on which it is stored; users are also able to access the data from multiple locations and devices without the need to run their own online server.

What if I told you your business could be just one click away from closing its doors forever?

It sounds like a nightmare scenario, one that could easily come true if you fail to acknowledge the real threat of cyber crime when it comes to your business.

There are many ways to connect to the public Internet and company networks, but those solutions are often less than optimal. Public Internet connections can be hacked, and even seemingly secure networks often suffer from unknown vulnerabilities.

That may be why so many security-conscious companies rely on virtual private networks to tunnel traffic between their employees and the outside world.

IT management isn't just for the big companies.

In fact, small businesses need to be able to properly manage their technology just as much, if not more. Big companies have an entire IT department making sure everything runs smoothly, but if you're a smaller company, you most likely don't have that kind of resources.

Nowadays, cyber attacks are more sophisticated and more complex than ever before. As attackers become more skilled and more dangerous, you need a security system that can keep up.

You're probably not going to like it, but the truth is that attackers have the upper hand, as they have the resources to spread themselves across thousands of compromised systems.

Defense in Depth also known as the Castle Approach is an information assurance concept. It is defined as a concept in which multiple layers of security controls are placed throughout an information technology system. As compared to the Castle Approach one layer of security is simply not enough, the moat will not keep all the attackers away.

There are immediate benefits to be derived from having a secured network. For companies, there are great financial benefits to be realized, while for individuals there is the benefit of having the peace of mind that a hacker can’t just break into your computer network.